


Gone to Sea

by FluffyBeaumont



Category: Dark Shadows (1966)
Genre: Absent Characters, Age of Sail, Boats and Ships, Loneliness, Love Poems, M/M, Navy, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-19
Updated: 2012-11-19
Packaged: 2017-11-19 02:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/567789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyBeaumont/pseuds/FluffyBeaumont
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An adaptation of a very old poem: Nathan Forbes has gone to sea, and Reverend Trask misses him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gone to Sea

**Author's Note:**

> The poem was originally printed in 1805 and runs thus:
> 
> Bobby Shafto's gone to sea,  
> Silver buckles at his knee;  
> He'll come back and marry me,  
> Bonny Bobby Shafto!  
> Bobby Shafto's bright and fair,  
> Panning out his yellow hair;  
> He's my love for evermore,  
> Bonny Bobby Shafto!
> 
> My version seeks to portray what Trask, having just fallen in love with Forbes, might feel if his beloved were called away to sea. For 'Bobby Shaftoe', read 'Nathan Forbes'.

Bobby Shaftoe’s gone to sea  
With silver buckles at his knee  
He’ll come back and marry me  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe's gone away  
I'll see him soon, some other day  
How I know this I cannot say  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe loves me true  
His nut-brown hair, his eyes of blue  
I never want to be untrue  
To my Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe's gone awhile  
Without the comfort of his smile  
I mark his absence, across the miles  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe's letter came  
It speaks of dice and cards and games  
He never talks of me by name  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe sails the sea  
I wonder: will he send for me?  
O hasten to thy lover's pleas  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe rides astride  
A bright sword hanging by his side  
Guilty of the sin of pride  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe swore a troth  
Binds him true, it binds us both  
What manner man am I, to boast?  
Of my Bonny Bobby Shaftoe.

Bobby Shaftoe sails the seas  
With silver buckles at his knees  
I fear him but a swart, great tease  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe sails for home  
No more in darkness does he roam  
He loves me true, and me alone  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe wrote to me  
A sprightly missive, lines of three  
"I cannot forswear loving thee"  
Blessed Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe's home again  
To all and sundry must explain  
Why his returning's dyed with pain  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe, son of strife  
Has dealt an ending to my life  
He's brought with him a pretty wife  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

Bobby Shaftoe, liar and cad  
For love he wanted, love he had  
I would have made his heart full glad  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

I was Bobby Shaftoe's fool  
I schooled him in the Golden Rule  
He loves that beast in lace and tulle  
Horrid Bobby Shaftoe

But I shall seek my heart's delight  
I'll lay for him this chilly night  
And bringing forth my pistol bright  
I'll murder Bobby Shaftoe.

Bobby Shaftoe's cold and dead  
A wreath of roses at his head  
A weeping widow in his bed  
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know that Rev. Trask would actually kill Forbes, but his broken heart would make it feel that way.


End file.
